The move is being cast as a player-safety issue, and it has support from coaches. Baltimore's John Harbaugh said players are "exhausted" by the 10-minute mark of the extra quarter.

The NFL says of the 83 overtime games in the past five seasons, 22 lasted at least 10 minutes. Five of those games went the full 15 minutes, ending in a tie. In the same span, if overtime ended after 10 minutes, there would have been 16 ties.